Chatham News

CHATHAM — Despite threats of litigation by shorefront property owners, the town is seeking to move ahead with an emergency dredging plan designed to keep Chatham Harbor open to fishing boats and other vessels.
“This is the most severe hazard to navigation that I’ve seen, not only in my time here, but anywhere that I’ve been in my career,” Deputy Harbormaster Jason Holm told the conservation commission last w...

CHATHAM — The summer residents' advisory committee is looking for some answers about the proposed new senior center. But having not yet chosen a site, town officials can’t judge the size of the facility or its potential staffing needs. That means some of those answers will have to wait.
Meeting on July 20, the summer residents’ committee quizzed Council on Aging Director Mandi Speakman and Principal Planner ...

CHATHAM – A Barnstable Superior Court judge has ruled that the town's 2014 taking of an easement over property owned by the Chatham Bars Inn adjacent to the fish pier was valid, rejecting the inn's claims that the taking lacked a public purpose and was done in bad faith.
In granting the town's motion for summary judgment in a June 24 decision, Justice Gregg J. Pasquale left only one issue in the case to move a...

CHATHAM – After 31 years at New England Pizza, Philip Malitas is branching out.
Malitas and his sister, Sophia Malita, who own the popular West Chatham pizzeria, have an agreement to purchase the Longshore Restaurant at 1077 Main St., just a block to the east and across the road.
“We don't work enough hours!” Malitas quipped last week when discussing taking on a second restaurant. New England Pizza will rem...

It's been decades since the venerable Old Harbor Lifesaving Station held vigil over the outer beach off Chatham, providing a base for surf rescue teams, a lookout post for boats in trouble, and a refuge for shipwrecked sailors since 1897.
But by 1977, perched on a rapidly eroding beach, the station itself needed to be rescued. It was lifted with a crane onto a barge and brought to a new home at Race Point, Pro...

CHATHAM — The new man in charge at Chatham Bars Inn not only has his own ties to the town, but also wants to strengthen the inn’s connection with Chatham.
Gary Thulander started work last week as the inn’s new managing director. He takes the place of John Speers, who served in that capacity since 2014.
Thulander comes to CBI from The Woodstock Inn and Resort in Vermont, where he was president and general ...

CHATHAM – On Tuesday, at ceremonies presided over by Noohkahshun, whose name means “the wind that carries softly,” two areas connecting Chatham to the native story of the Cape were named and given signs detailing their history.
An area adjacent to the Muddy Creek and the Muddy Creek Bridge was re-consecrated to its original name, Askaonkton, or “at the Wading Place.” A sign was then placed on land at Old Harbo...

CHATHAM – In its first year, the town's waterways user permit seemed to find its way onto most vessels in town, although revenue was slightly below projections.
Waterways officials had projected the fee would generate up to $175,000 annually. In 2017, the permit brought in $170,225, according to Finance Director Alix Heilala.
Part of that shortfall may be because of delays in billing and loss of moorings in...

CHATHAM – Claiming that dredging in Aunt Lydia's Cove last year contributed to damage to his revetment this past winter, a Minister's Point property owner is threatening to block the town's plan to clear shoals from the North Inlet.
Gerald Milden is asking that before emergency dredging is done across Chatham Harbor from his home, the town conduct a study to determine potential impacts on the inner shoreline. ...

SOUTH CHATHAM — Cockle Cove Beach, a narrow, rocky shoreline just a few weeks ago, is now a broad, clean, sandy beach. The lifeguards are back, and so is the fee for parking.
Cockle Cove Beach before the nourishment project (left) and after (right). COURTESY PHOTOS
Erosion had left the beach all but unusable f...

SOUTH CHATHAM - The Barnstable County dredge Codfish began work clearing shoals from Mill Creek in South Chatham last week, pumping the recovered sand to Cockle Cove Beach.
Beach nourishment is underway at Cockle Cove Beach, #SouthChatham . pic.twitter.com/pmJj9gXubk
— Alan Pollock (@CCCAlanPollock) July 12, 2018
The sand is a dark color at first because of organic material, but quickly bleach...

CHATHAM – In the past decade, the town has served as a location for two movies – the small, independent production “The Golden Boys” and Disney's big-budget recreation of the Pendleton rescue, “The Finest Hours.”
This week Chatham will serve as the setting for a much smaller, more intimate film, a student short entitled “Man of War.” In a sense, the film may be the closest of all to the spirit of Chatham.
“...